Update Regarding Status of Licences

RNS Number : 8009S

Pathfinder Minerals PLC

25 November 2011

 



For immediate release: 25 November 2011

Pathfinder Minerals Plc

("Pathfinder Minerals" or the "Company")

Update Regarding Status of Licences

Further to its announcement of 11 November 2011, Pathfinder Minerals wishes to update shareholders on its investigations into the status of licences 4623C ("Moebase") and 760C ("Naburi").

The Company, together with its new UK legal advisers, Travers Smith LLP, and Mozambique legal representatives, have uncovered the existence of Pathfinder Moçambique S.A., a Mozambique-incorporated company established on 23 September 2011 with which neither Pathfinder Minerals, nor its subsidiaries, are affiliated. It has been established that the shareholders of Pathfinder Moçambique S.A. are:

(i) Jacinto Soares Veloso ("General Veloso"), a former director of Pathfinder Minerals and a current director of Pathfinder Minerals' subsidiary, Companhia Mineira de Naburi S.A.R.L. ("CMDN");

(ii) J.V Consultores Internacionais, Limitada a company controlled by General Veloso; and

(iii) Diogo Jose Enriques Cavaco, also a current director of CMDN.

Pathfinder Minerals further understands that Pathfinder Moçambique S.A has been assigned an exploration and research licence over an area which the Company has been led to believe is an amalgamation of Pathfinder Minerals' Moebase and Naburi mining concession areas, together with additional acreage which the Company, through its subsidiary CMDN, had previously sought for logistical purposes.

The Company remains unable to confirm definitively the status of the Moebase and Naburi licences. The Ministry of Mineral Resources of Mozambique ("the Ministry") has expressed its commitment to confirm the status. It has, however, orally confirmed to the Company and its Mozambique legal representatives that it had received and had been processing an application from Pathfinder Moçambique S.A. for the amalgamation of the Moebase and Naburi licences into a single licence to be assigned to Pathfinder Moçambique S.A.

The Company, together with its Mozambique legal representatives, have alerted the Ministry that neither Pathfinder Minerals, nor its subsidiaries, are in fact affiliated with Pathfinder Moçambique S.A. The Ministry has orally confirmed, in the light of this information, that it is investigating the status of the licences and the process by which the Moebase and Naburi licences may have been amalgamated and assigned to a company unaffiliated with Pathfinder Minerals or its subsidiary CMDN, save for the fact that the directors and two of the shareholders of Pathfinder Moçambique S.A. are also members of the board of Pathfinder Minerals' subsidiary, CMDN, to which the Moebase and Naburi licences have belonged.

The directors of Pathfinder Minerals, together with the Company's legal advisers in the UK and Mozambique, are pursuing all avenues to secure the Company's licences and resume project development. Representatives of the Board and of Travers Smith LLP have been in Mozambique during the last week and the Company, together with its Mozambique legal advisers, have held meetings with the Ministry. The Company is pleased with the Ministry's commitment to investigating the matter. A further update will be issued as and when appropriate.

Enquiries:

Pathfinder Minerals Plc

Nick Trew, Chief Executive

Tel. [phone]

Daniel Stewart & Company Plc

Oliver Rigby or James Thomas

Tel: [phone]

M: Communications

Ben Simons or Maria Souvorov

Tel: [phone] /2327

Notes to Editors

Pathfinder Minerals Plc's subsidiary Companhia Mineira de Naburi S.A.R.L ("CMDN") was issued mining concession licence 4623C ("Moebase") on 13 July 2011 for a period of twenty-five years.  The Moebase licence is in addition to licence 760C ("Naburi"), also granted in the name of CMDN for a period of 25 years ending in 2029. Taken together, these mining concessions cover approximately 32,000 hectares of land on the Indian Ocean coast of the Zambezia province of Mozambique, known to contain the heavy minerals, ilmenite, rutile and zircon.

Pathfinder Minerals Plc is admitted to trading on AIM.  Trading was suspended on 11 November 2011 at the Company's request, following notification from General Jacinto Soares Veloso of his resignation as a director and assertions by him that CMDN is no longer the licence holder.

 

END

 

 

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